A reporter with the Standard newspaper, Peter Opiyo, told AfricaNews that the electoral body has sensitized the populace enough for this exercise and is very optimistic everything will go well in Wednesday’s vote. “Well, the people are ready and are just waiting to cast their vote tomorrow.”

Meanwhile, the head of Kenya's electoral commission has assured Kenyans to expect a peaceful referendum and not a repeat of the violence that followed December 2007's presidential elections that killed more than 1 300 people as the nation votes on a new constitution.

"In terms of security ... we expect to have a peaceful referendum," Ahmad Issack Hassan, Chairman of the Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC), told journalists in Nairobi.

"Kenyans have learned a lesson. We have gone to the brink ... almost to a civil war," he added. "We want to prove to ourselves and the world we can hold a peaceful referendum, which will be free and fair."

Hassan disclosed that broadband modems and low-cost phones will be used to transmit provisional results to the national tallying centre, from where the figures will be broadcast live.

Some 64 000 security officers have been deployed around the country, with particular focus on the Rift Valley, where rival tribes set about each other with machetes and bows and arrows during the post-election violence.

Hassan added that the election will be monitored by 1 204 observers, including delegations from the East African regional grouping IGAD and the British Commonwealth.

The IIEC replaced the discredited electoral body that presided over the presidential poll.

The new constitution is part of a reform process aimed at preventing more violence at the next presidential elections slatted 2012 and again establishing a two-tier parliament, decentralising power and introducing a host of other changes.

The run-up to the vote has been generally peaceful, although grenade attacks at a rally opposing the constitution killed at least five people at a park in central Nairobi in June. Nobody has been charged in connection with the blasts.

The previous violence has been attributed to a delay in announcing the results, which led to suspicions that the election was being rigged in favour of President Mwai Kibaki.

Both Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga - the two men who were at loggerheads in 2007 - are backing the constitution, reducing the risk of trouble between their Kikuyu and Luo tribes and their allies.

Meanwhile, opinion polls have shown that around 60% of registered voters are likely to back the constitution, which would replace the document created after Kenya gained her independence in 1963 from the British.

It is estimated that just under 12.5 million Kenyans are registered to vote in 27 689 polling stations, which opens at 06:00 (03:00GMT) and closes at 17:00 and the final results are expected 48 hours after polls close.